The architectural wing of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde that flourished through the 1920s, seeking a wholly new, non-historical language of building suited to the new socialist society: dynamic diagonal and cantilevered forms, exposed structural frames, and buildings conceived as social machines, workers' clubs, communal housing, radio towers, rather than monuments. Vladimir Tatlin's unbuilt Monument to the Third International and Konstantin Melnikov's Moscow buildings are its most celebrated statements; official Soviet taste turned against it for a return to classicism by the mid-1930s.
Facts
PeriodThe Palace of the Soviets competition result of 1932 signaled the official turn back to classicism. Origin Region Connections
Associated With
Influenced
Deconstructivism takes both its name and some of its fractured, diagonal formal language from Russian Constructivism, filtered through late-twentieth-century critical theory.
Source Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of ArchitectureBanister Fletcher, edited by Dan Cruickshank (20th edition)
Influenced By
Russian Constructivism drew on Italian Futurism dynamism via Cubo-Futurism.
Notable Examples
Source Melnikov House (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Originated In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Source Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of ArchitectureBanister Fletcher, edited by Dan Cruickshank (20th edition)
Sources
1. Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture
Banister Fletcher, edited by Dan Cruickshank (20th edition), Architectural Press, 1996
Getty Research Institute, Art and Architecture Thesaurus: Constructivism
Getty Research Institute, Art and Architecture ThesaurusIn Group: Early Modern Styles of Europe, Scope noteQuote, In Group: Early Modern Styles of Europe, Scope note
centered in Russia around 1913
Melnikov House (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationNotable Examples: Melnikov House, Lead sectionQuote, Notable Examples: Melnikov House, Lead section
This one-apartment residential mansion, located near the centre of Moscow, is a unique example of this type of construction during the Soviet era.
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